Notes from Chris

Episode 1858

Ana Čolak Fustin has spent her career helping others land their dream jobs. For her day job at a British-headquartered bank, she leads a team that helps employees make internal moves within the company. Working with professionals ranging from fresh graduates to experienced VPs, she makes sure that each person is able to demonstrate competence for a new role they’re hoping to land. 

One of the things she discovered through her work was that most candidates struggled with crafting a resume that reflects their true qualifications. This was the case even with experienced candidates, which made Ana realize that almost everyone could use some help with a job search.

Her first thought was to become a coach—but while Googling competitors and reading about successful coaching businesses, she realized that she could do the same, at scale, with digital products. Resume templates weren’t a new thing, but after looking through most of the ones she could find online, Ana learned that most were overly designed and just wouldn’t cut it in corporate recruitment.

But of course, product is only the first step. Getting the distribution right is often just as difficult. Ana researched a few-commerce platforms ranging from eBay to RedBubble before finally deciding to go with Etsy. She thought it was the best choice even though Etsy was most well known as a marketplace for personalized art. Its huge audience of over 35 million buyers per year meant more organic traffic to her shop. Moreover, the selling fees on Etsy were also lower than other platforms. She was all set up to sell in just minutes.

Today, she sells up to 400 templates a month, which nets her an average of $2,500 in monthly side income. With over 6,000 products sold to customers from over 50 countries, it’s safe to say that she has done far more with digital products than she could have just selling her time as a job coach.

But the journey hasn’t always been easy. Ana was an expert in recruitment and job searching, but found herself struggling with new skills such as SEO, paid advertising, and social media marketing. It took more than a year to start having thousand-dollar months, but now she wakes up to sales notifications and feedback from customers who have used her templates to land new, higher-paying jobs.


 Moving forward, her new year’s resolution for 2022 is to create a comprehensive coaching program for job seekers that will help them navigate their search strategically.

 

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  MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Find your own resume template at Ana's Etsy store, ByRecruiters.etsy.com and at her own website, ByRecruiters.com.

SEE ALSO:

• Recruiter Gives Pink Slip to Boring Resumes: After helping a number of job-seeking friends, a recruiter decides to monetize her resume skills.
• Q&A: What are your best tips for Etsy?: You’ve probably heard of Etsy, the world’s largest handcrafted marketplace. It’s easy to get started selling, and there’s a large group of buyers. But how do you stand out?
• Monogrammed Blanket Etsy Shop Measures Up: A simple embroidery shop becomes a six-figure blanket biz, podcast, and online course.

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

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